Riley huffed slightly. While the battle was short, he was still recovering. And even then, he was digging through the corpse trying to find the soul shard.
After a few minutes of intently searching, he had managed to find it.
'Lucy might be the best person to beef up. Out of everyone she had formal combat training.'
So he threw her the shard, and in no more than a couple of hesitant seconds, she consumed it.
The vast plane was still devoid of any life. But he knew now that it was a sort of farce. The creatures were weary, for some strange reason.
In a way, the playing field was even. Darkness shrouded everything, so everyone was equally blind. Yet… they could sense Riley's cohort. And he was not particularly pleased with that.
Climbing a tree had crossed his mind. But that had its fair share of perils. It would only take a tall creature to pick them off like fruits.
Regardless, he needed rest desperately. [Twisted Scissors] drew on far too much soul essence, and even the fear effect of the lantern could drain whatever pond of essence he had nestled in his core.
"Let's rest for now, twelve hours is good progress. I am proud of all of you."
He turned around, far too quickly, so he missed their pleased smiles. There was not a human who didn't feel elated when praised.
But Reily was hardly in the headspace to consider psychological tactics on his teammates. He just wanted to sleep.
His stomach grumbled.
'Right, eating and then sleeping.'
Lucy had carved out a few chunks of meat from the awakened monster and cooked it on the fire sparked to life by Richard.
Yara and Dari were keeping watch, ratherly laxly. Occasionally their gazes would wander onto each other, and they would sneak behind a tree to share a kiss.
Still, Riley didn't mind. He only concerned himself with the large piece of meat in his hands.
'Not much flavour, some salt would be great.'
Still, Lucy was a good enough cook to make it edible. Every minute that passed, he was more grateful for having found Lucy in the Bright Castle.
And they still had a long trip ahead of them. There were some goals in his mind already.
The first was of course to reach Bastion and meet Sunny. That was the top priority, everything else stemmed from there.
Meeting Cassie would be important too, but he had to reach the Saint level before he could even think about delving into the matters of fate.
And lastly, Riley wished to join either the firekeepers or the government. Both posed great opportunities for growth. One would allow direct contact to Cassie, Sunny and Nephis, while the other offered connections to Jet, Effie and Kai.
'It would also be nice to take Lucy with me, but she would likely be treated as an outcast once the war ends.'
He sighed and bit down on the tender meat.
"Lucy, come here."
She did as instructed and sat closely to him.
"What do you think will be the outcome of this war? Or a better question would be, who do you support?"
She took a second to think, but a smile slowly crept on her lips.
"I haven't given it much thought. But I guess I hope Lady Changing Star can achieve victory. Though…I am not sure how I feel about her being so close to the Lord of Shadows."
He almost let out a dull laugh, remembering how her and the Lord of Shadows were actually dating. But revealing such a thing might prove to be harmful to his future endeavors.
"That is a noble hope. I am sure she will come out victorious."
Lucy smiled, this time though it hadn't reached her eyes. As if she knew what to expect.
'Does she perhaps know of their plans to kill the sovereigns? Surely not…but it's not impossible.'
It was nothing that would affect his chances of survival at the moment. So he deigned it unimportant. But he now knew that Lucy was much more than just a bit of muscle, at least she had a brain to sniff out potential plans or schemes. That was invaluable to Riley.
Finally, he stood up, wandering toward a tall tree. Its branches were thick, and the closest one to the ground was several meters up.
'That might be safe. I don't recall many nightmare creatures being able to climb, or towering that high.'
So, he summoned the [Twisted Scissors once more and carved foot holds in the tree. Slowly, he managed to reach the lowest branch and offered a hand to lift the others up to him.
The night might have been immortal, and the creatures bountiful, but it was possible to find safety.
"Could Dari and Richard keep the first watch?"
Yara's shoulder slumped, wanting to say something. But then she blushed, realising why he had split the couple apart.
'That's right, I need them to keep their eyes open, not on each other!'
He sighed and pushed his head against the bark of the tree.
It somehow felt nostalgic. How could it have felt nostalgic? Riley had never actually slept in a tree, but he had read many chapters in which Sunny, Cassie and Nephis had lived on the branches of the Soul Tree on the Forgotten Shore.
A shiver ran down his spine as he looked down at the young girl now using his lap as a pillow. Lucy was a quick sleeper, she had practically passed out the second her head hit his thigh.
He could feel a smile spread on his lips as he pushed locks of her hair to the side.
'That's right, she is still a kid. No matter how confident she seems with a weapon in her hands, at the end of the day she is just a child.'
And finally, with a few passing minutes of his own eyes being shut, he allowed himself to fall asleep.